Richard Sherman: There’s Going To Be An NFL Lockout in 2021

Start brushing up on your soccer knowledge, because there’s a good chance your sports viewing options will be limited in a few years. According to San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman, the players are bracing themselves for a potential work stoppage when the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the NFL expires at the end of the 2020 season.

Sherman was recently asked if there was concern among the players about a potential lockout, and his answer was not optimistic at all.

“There wasn’t concern,” Sherman said. “It’s going to happen, so it’s not like guys are guessing on that one.”

“Because there was a lockout before,” Sherman added. “We don’t plan on changing anything about the deal we currently have right now, so I don’t think it’s going to be negotiated before the end of the CBA, so it’s going to cause a lockout and we’ll deal with it from there.”

The NFLPA was also locked out prior to the signing of the current CBA, which was agreement upon in 2011. Thankfully for football fans, the lockout existed during the off-season (from March to July), meaning that the regular season continued normally.

While the two sides have a little less than three years to hammer out the terms of a new agreement, they both seem ready to dig their heels in to get their demands met. The players will likely be seeking some sort of improvement when it comes to guaranteed money in contracts, as well as changes to the current franchise tag system that some owners are using to hold players hostage.